Writer Wednesday Army style

I've been fortunate lately. Due to my blog circling, I've been getting email offers to review military related books. I'm actually in the middle of an incredible one right now (No, I won't tell you what it is just yet :) ). So they send me an email, I respond, they send me a book and I offer a review. I want to preface this by saying I don't allow getting a free book to sway my opinion.

Intro to Army Life — Allison Mewes

This was the first book I was ever offered to review. I was pretty excited about it too. This book is a guide book to the military life, meaning it attempts to lay out what you can expect when you get involved with a military man. What I was most interested about with this book was that it was meant for significant others as well as spouses. We all know that often significant others mean nothing in the military arena and are often left to figure things out for themselves until they get married.

I have to admit, I wasn't a fan of this book. I was addicted to all these "how to" books. I've read tons and still have many of them. I used to break one out whenever I had to read an LES. But there are a lot of problems with this one.

First, as a reader, you never find out much about Mewes. She does a brief introduction, but I found I couldn't connect to her personally. I didn't know anything about her except that she was confused about the military when she first got involved with a soldier.

Second, and this goes for any book I ever read, I hate seeing punctuation or grammatical errors. Just like when I reviewed this book, I have a problem with those errors. Do we all make mistakes? Sure we do. You probably see some errors in my own blog posts, though I always try to fix them. But you see, I don't have an editor that reads my posts before their published. Book authors have that chance.

There were a lot of things that could have used more development. For example, Mewes writes about the chain of command, but then segues into how enlisted become officers. The way it would sound to a brand new spouse is that you start out enlisted then go officer as you move up the ranks. It was confusing.

There was a lot of misleading information as well. Details about housing, PCSing, post living, etc. While I understand my experience is not indicative of what everyone else experiences, I hate the mass generalizations that Mewes presented as fact. There was even information that was just plain wrong. Such as Active Combat Uniform. It should have read ARMY Combat Uniform.

While I enjoyed Mewes style, I couldn't excuse the large amount of incorrect information. Maybe it's because I've been around them military for a little while and have started learning things. I did my best to read the book as though I was a new spouse. If you're looking for an extremely brief overview of the military, where you aren't worried if all the information is correct, then don't let my opinion sway you from reading it.

BUT...

If you're looking for a great guide book, I highly recommend "Married to the Military," by Meredith Levya.

Have you read any military guide books? Which did you like?